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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

@leilabelkora.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.7K following 960 posts

Science writer. Roots in US (NE/CO), Morocco, Switzerland. She/her. Current project: poet Robert Frost as amateur astronomer, to come from Clemson @cupress.bsky.social Agent Henry Thayer at Brandt & Hochman.

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Reposted by Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

Aubrey Hirsch @aubreyhirsch.bsky.social · 19h

Did you know that if you buy my book on Amazon, Jeff Bezos makes 5 times as much as I do on each copy sold? Sharing some behind-the-scenes book math on why buying directly from presses is best for EVERYONE (except Bezos) in my newsletter today! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/book-math

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 19h

I see that @kelbadry.bsky.social has won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship (Genius award)! Congratulations 🧪🔭

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/a...

MacArthur Foundation Announces 2025 ‘Genius Grant’ Winners

www.nytimes.com

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 1d

Woohoo!

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 1d

I’m going to look at my childhood marbles again. (No I have not “lost” my “marbles.”) Maybe I have a slightly scratched one that could pass for Enceladus or something.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 1d

It *is* a lot easier once they go to college. But. I’m within spitting distance of the end of my WIP and have solemnly vowed never to write a book again. Solidarity.

Reposted by Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

The geology professor in the office next to me got me a banded agate that was cut as a sphere making it look like Jupiter! It’s awesome. 😎

A hand holding up a banded rock that has been shaped to look like a sphere. It is in front of a poster of the Juno mission to Jupiter.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 1d

That is so cool!

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 3d

And “moonlet” is a word to some of us, too.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 3d

No, four letters are fine.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 3d

That’s neat!

Reposted by Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 3d

We're in the home stretch now, #SHOT2025! For this penultimate session, I'm in Auditorium 3.350 for a panel on Computers in Cartoons! (Will #WileECoyote make an appearance? We shall see...)

For now, I'm enjoying Dick van Lente's theoretical introduction to the analysis of computer iconography.

To truly unlock UNIVAC's potential, it helped to be a card-carrying "Super Genius."

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 3d

“Muon” is a word, Spelling Bee!

The seven letters of the puzzle, the word muon, and the statement “not in word list.”

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 4d

I’m still too busy writing to help take care of the garden, but here are our neglected geranium, neglected rose bush, neglected lemon tree, and neglected, yet strangely blooming early, azalea.

One yellow lemon and one that is mostly green.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 4d

I enjoyed this, for personal history reasons: the concept of Al-Andalus in various societies and cultures.

Cover of On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of Al-Andalus by Eric Calderwood.

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 4d

Good morning, high moon.

Gibbous moon in a clear blue morning sky above a partially-seen eucalyptus tree.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 5d

Mr. Bean moment today when my husband raised his sun hat to adjust it. A couple across the street smiled and nodded.

I was a bit ahead of my husband so I hadn’t seen him seemingly tip his hat. I just saw the couple greeting us so I called hello.

My husband, surprised, asked, do we know them?
🤔 😄

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

It was even on high-quality stationery!

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

I received a hand-written letter in the mail. 🥹

That’s it, that’s the post.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

I concur…

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you, gentleman naturalist! Are you in the UK? I know the book ships from the US, so we get a break on that score, not sure if it also ships from the UK. If the shipping costs are high you might look for it in a library.

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

Within the last couple days

Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 6d

So many times

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 6d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 6d

So frustrating! I thought about looking for the comet with binoculars, but then I remembered how foggy or overcast mornings have been lately.

Also, a giant orb weaver has been hanging right over the garden gate. I would not only have to get up super early, I’d have to dodge that monster. 😆

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 7d

Coucou Imane! 😘

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Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 7d

If you’re in the market for a book on the history of astronomy, praised by Cornell prof Martha Haynes as “A terrific blend of the science and the history,” good news! 🧪🔭

I have a 20% discount code for you, valid now through Jan 2026: 25SMA4.

Book title is Minding the Heavens, the story of our discovery of the Milky Way. Cover has illustration of 18th century astronomer using large telescope. Background image of night sky.

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Reposted by Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 9d

Another look at Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) from this morning. Here's three 8-minutes exposures showing its motion against the background of the stars. 🔭

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